I really like this thing. The opening is big enough to put my entire arm in so I can get in and scrub by hand. The bottom is dome shaped and the tube meets the middle of the dome so that if i want to prime with sugar instead of charging with C02, any sediment that forms will fall off the sides and I will be drawing from clean beer. Ralph likes it too and that is important

I have two of the 2.5 gallon kegs of this style. The price was right, and they work just great.

Apropo of another thread where I learned that pin locks have thicker gauge steel, these kegs seem to be thinner gauge than standard cornies. So they could damage easily. I'm not typically chucking them around though.

I found that the dip tubes in mine were a little shorter than I liked, particularly with the domed bottom (though it is nice to not always pick up the yeast). It seemed like a fair amount of beer to lose in a small keg.

Yeah the domed bottom is a trade off. On the one hand I can prime my kegs with sugar and set them aside, then not suck up sediment when pouring, but on the other hand I will forfeit a pint or two of beer. I suppose I could pour that into a glass at cleaning time

Any insight on using these to ferment in? Would there be enough room at the bottom for the yeast cake in a 3 gallon batch? I've been thinking about moving to kegs to ferment in, but the ONLY thing holding me back is the possibility of clogging when I'm trying to push out the yeast to close-transfer the beer to the serving keg.

I think there might be. On the ones I have the dip tube stops short above the dome in the middle, so you have a decent amount of space for the yeast cake to settle out. I've never measured how much liquid would fit there, though.

I'm going to try and ferment in a corny this weekend, see what happens. If it clogs, then I'll siphon it out and think about how to fix it. Many seem to swear by doing this. The Joe Klinck video doesn't say anything about messing with the dip tube. Perhaps taking care to keep hops out of the fermentor would be a good idea. Otherwise, why wouldn't yeast push out?